Singapore's aerospace sector gets training support from the government

THE scheme to upgrade workers' skills during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Enhanced Training Support Package (ETSP), has been rolled out to the aerospace sector, offering more than 13,000 highly-subsidised training places.

The support package was unveiled by Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing and Minister of State for Education and Manpower Gan Siow Huang during a visit to Singapore Aero Engine Services on Tuesday morning.

Mr Chan stressed the importance of the aerospace industry to Singapore, as the sector contributed 1 per cent of gross domestic product with total output at S$13.1 billion and employs more than 22,200 workers, 74 per cent of whom are professionals, managers, executives and technicians.

"Singapore has built up strong and deep capabilities and infrastructure in the sector, standing us in good stead and we must build on this foundation to help the sector rebound faster," he said.

Under the ETSP, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) will provide enhanced training support from Sept 1 to Dec 31, 2020 to help companies in the aerospace sector tide over the pandemic and upskill their employees while positioning for recovery.

Employers who send their staff for training programmes will get absentee payroll support at 90 per cent of workers' hourly basic salary - limited to S$10 per hour - as well as funding support at up to 90 per cent of course fees.

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SSG and the Economic Development Board (EDB) will work with appointed training partners to increase training capacity to cater to the needs of affected employees during this period.

The National University of Singapore, NTUC LearningHub, SIA Engineering Company, ST Engineering Aerospace and Temasek Polytechnic make up the first batch of appointed training providers to offer about 100 courses for the sector.

The ETSP is also available to these sectors affected by the pandemic - tourism, air transport, retail, food services, land transport, as well as arts and culture. Sectors such as air transport and tourism have seen particularly strong take-ups, with 31,000 and 28,000 training places filled respectively, said EDB and SSG.

Launched in February this year, the package has had nearly 84,000 training places taken up by over 35,000 employees from 920 enterprises.